Longtime Southampton resident Sheila Waldron Lane of Culpeper, Virginia, died September 8, 2018, in Arlington, Virginia. She was 98.
The widow of Norman R. Lane, she was born to Percy John Waldron and Elizabeth Thornton Glover Waldron in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Her father died a few months before her birth, and so she moved before the age of two with her mother and older sister to Southampton, where her mother opened a children’s clothing store on the east side of Main Street. After graduating from Southampton High School in 1940, she enrolled at New York University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1944.
After graduation, she returned to live in Southampton and married Southampton native Norman R. Lane, an engineer at the Western Union Experimental Laboratory in Water Mill, on June 28, 1944. They raised two daughters in Southampton. After the lab in Water Mill closed in the mid-1960s, they relocated to Monsey, New York, while Mr. Lane worked at the Western Union installation in Mahwah, New Jersey. After he retired from Western Union, he took a job in 1980 with the Federal Reserve in Culpeper, Virginia, where they lived for the remainder of their lives.
While in Southampton, Mrs. Lane was an active member of the Methodist Church, serving at various times as financial secretary and president of the Women’s Society of Christian Service, as well as singing in the choir. She also became involved in Girl Scouting. Having been a Scout in her youth, she became a troop leader when her elder daughter joined the Brownies and continued with her troop until they entered high school. She also helped to train other leaders. Her involvement in Girl Scouting continued for the rest of her life. She was president of two Girl Scout Councils in New York State and registrar of Culpeper County in Virginia.
Her involvement in Methodist Church activities was also lifelong. In Culpeper she was a member of the choir, the hand-bell choir, and the United Methodist Women. She also became involved in the Culpeper Hospital Auxiliary, serving as president for several years and volunteering in the coffee shop for more than 30 years. She joined an Extension Homemakers Club and was its president and treasurer at various times, as well as serving terms as the president of Area 9 Extension Homemakers and regional director.
Surviving Mrs. Lane are her daughters, Karen Lane Rood of South Carolina, and Susan G. Lane of Virginia; her grandson, Jonathan M. Rood of Virginia; and two great-grandsons, Nelson M. Rood and Benjamin A. Rood of South Carolina. She was predeceased by her husband in 2011; her parents; and her sister, Muriel Waldron Singleton.
A funeral was held in the Culpeper United Methodist Church on September 17, followed by interment next to her husband in Fairview Cemetery, Culpeper.
Memories and condolences may be shared with the Lane family through clore-english.com.